[HPforGrownups] Re: Grindelwald and evil

[Torsten]

No: HPFGUIDX 52439

Crunchy Chocolate Frog:
>Torsten wrote "one can take only so much negative experiences and 
>desperation before stopping being what others might call sensible and 
>good."
>
>Do people say the same thing when a man beats up his wife? Or when he 
>molests the kids? "yes, what he did was bad, but he had a terrible 
>childhood, his parents didn't love him and didn't buy him an electric 
>train for Christmas"? I don't think so. Why should people want to 
>give that sort of excuse to an Evil Overlord? "Grindelwald really is 
>a very bad wizard who is bent on World Domination, but we should 
>forgive him because his mum and dad didn't really love him and didn't 
>allow him to keep his pet Werewolf, or his favorite flying carpet, 
>and never allowed him to play Quidditch."

You got me wrong. I wasn't talking about an evil Grindelwald with cheap excuses. To 
stick to your comparisons: If a man continually beats his wife and rapes her, and she 
one day 'breaks' and kills him, this - the act or murder - would still be wrong, but it 
would be understandable.
If a child is suffers from abuse at the hands of it's parents, it might grow up to be so 
dysfunctional it treats it's own children the same way. The abuse it suffered itself can 
explain this, but it doesn't excuse it. This is what my statement was about - explanation 
and understanding why someone does something wrong, not excusing that he does.

Read the fanfic again to see what Grindelwald's motivations are there. He is reacting to 
something wrong by doing something wrong. This, sadly, is what humans do all the 
time. That's why some people who have to suffer under tyrants turn terrorist and 
cause even more suffering. Not everyone is Ghandi.

-Torsten